Tribe's Head of Knowledge, Chelsi Clifton, gives an overview of Tribe's experience through lockdown for Q2 2020.
As we ripped into the making of a brilliant start to the calendar year, no one could have predicted a pandemic and the economic effects we continue to see today. As New Zealand has been praised for curbing COVID-19, the overall impression is yet to be realised.
COVID-19 has caused disruption on a global scale and our industry disciplines have not been exempted. However, despite the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the pandemic, we have continued to see an increased demand for digital and technology, contact centre and executive search across our business. While many of our permanent opportunities were placed on hold as the pandemic reared its ugly head, we saw a clear increase in demand for contractors and temporary talent. We saw volume contact centre recruitment increase, as there was a fast pivot to online purchasing which really exposed our many eCommerce platforms here in NZ.
Candidate Rich Market:
Competition among candidates for jobs remains fierce; research conducted for SEEK reveals that as of mid-April 40 percent of candidates agree there are not enough jobs out there. A candidate rich market can complicate the recruitment process and we all know quantity does not align with quality! While employers may be able to attract an even higher calibre of talent, their employee value proposition (EVP) and process/candidate experience will help in both retaining and attracting top talent.
Technology:
Tribe and many of our clients are using our learnings from COVID-19 as an opportunity to revolutionise the way we use technology. We’re ensuring we all emerge in a better position than where we began and innovate like we never have before to secure our position in the post-COVID-19 economy. We have put a huge effort into our tech stack with a heavy focus on automation. This has allowed us to better engage with our clients and candidates and improve our customer experience, especially during these times.
The Wonders of Zoom:
We saw a huge shift this quarter as we all moved to digital working to enable us to effectively collaborate and continue our day-to-day. Most of our clients made a rapid and often surprisingly seamless transition to this new way of working. In order to maintain our connectedness at Tribe, we enjoyed daily team meets, full Tribe meetings twice a week and even fitness classes run by our very own Micha Swallow! All candidate interviews, client briefings and catch-ups were conducted via Zoom. I think we all learned pretty quickly Zoom fatigue was a real thing and recognised ways to combat this. Although, I’m still left wondering why we felt compelled to wave at the end of a Zoom call?!
Website:
Pre-COVID-19, we had plans and timelines set for a new website launch and rebrand. Lockdown actually made us accelerate these plans and a number of key strategic initiatives faster than we’d initially intended and this has been a great result.
Mental Health:
Supporting mental health has been a topic front of mind for many of our clients. Research from SEEK shows one in three Kiwis reported feeling lonelier than ever before and more than 30 percent agree they feel nervous about their job security. Tribe has recently partnered with Sir John Kirwan and his Mentemia app and will be recording a webinar at the end of this month - look out for updates on our LinkedIn.
There's still a long road to recovery ahead and the market is certainly quieter than pre-COVID-19 levels, however we’re cautiously optimistic and will continue to embrace the knowledge gained over this unprecedented time, ready for a confident return.
